The Refiner! by William Nicholson, 1862
Second in series on The Refiner:
“But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the LORD an offering in righteousness. Malachi 3:2-3 NKJV
In the context, Malachi predicts the coming of the Messiah, which, to the pious Jews, was an object of great desire. But, at that time, the majority of the Jews were wicked, or formalists and hypocrites. To them the prophet intimates that Messiah’s appearance would involve a test or trial which very few would be able to stand. “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?” Verse 2. Who shall stand the test of his doctrines, the trying dispensation which shall attend the setting-up of his kingdom? No hypocrite can endure his doctrines, or stand before his tribunal.
4. A Refiner melts the gold and silver, and makes it very soft, and thus renders it fit for his purpose.
Christ melts and softens his people by the furnace of affliction, and by his Spirit. The heart was hard, refractory, and unwilling before. Now it is soft, yielding, and obedient. “See, I will refine and test them, for what else can I do because of the sin of my people?” Jeremiah 9:7. Or what way else can I adopt to make them pliable? “God makes my heart soft.” Job 23:16.
5. A Refiner, to expedite and to perfect his work, sometimes heats the furnace more intensely.
Christ, if he sees that the heat of ordinary afflictions and trials will not purify and refine the soul of a believer — adds greater afflictions, puts them into a very hot fire, greater trials, according to his own wisdom. “All kinds of trials.” See 1 Peter 1:6, 7; 4:12.
Tomorrow – Nicholson’s continued comments on the Refiner
